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A Garage Makeover

July 18, 2013Kathy Gossen

As mentioned during my July Goals update, last month I was able to FINALLY get my garage a bit more organized. It’s been a long time coming but here’s a taste of what I’ve been up to over the last month. I apologize ahead of time about the pics. I was having a few camera issues so some of them are a bit blurred. I would have gone back to retake them but by the time I realized it, I was already halfway finished cleaning it up. Needless to say, it is so nice to finally be able to park both cars in the garage and still have room to walk around, do the laundry, and access our file cabinets. This momma is much more pleasant to be around as a result. 😉

Our Garage Before

We had four major areas of concern when I began this project a little more than a month ago. The first was the area around our garage washer and dryer. Yes, I’d love a laundry room but when you buy a 1950s home in Oklahoma, the garage is where it’s at so we make do. However, it can make for some very frustrating laundry time, especially if there is stuff in the way of the washer or dryer doors as was commonly the problem.

No home for our stroller and bikes

Our second area of concern included boxes and boxes of choir music that I inherited a couple of months ago from a private Christian school in the area who made the donation to our area homeschool choirs. While a major blessing, this also called for some serious organization…and a serious mess in the meantime.

Boxes and boxes of music to sort and file for choir

Our third area of concern included storage containers and miscellaneous junk just tossed on a shelf over the cars with the mental label “to be sorted as some undisclosed time.” I don’t know if you have a shelf like that or a drawer or what-have-you but those kind of shelves can been a doozy of a trap.

Unorganized mess of storage containers and miscellaneous stuff

The last area we chose to organize included our garage cabinets which contained kitchen items I had rarely, if ever used, as well as more canning jars than I could ever use to can in a summer. It was our “what if…” storage. You know, the “what if I ever need this?” or “what if we have a huge crop next year and need to can twice as much?” Yes, those what ifs.

Way more jars and unused kitchen items than we needed

Needless to say, I had my work cut out for me.

Our Garage After

To begin, I emptied out our storage cabinets and got rid of all the kitchen supplies I never used anyway. If, by chance I ever really do need a large heavy cast iron pot or a tea kettle, I’ll either ask a neighbor or a family member if I can borrow one instead of keep them forever just wasting space. In their place I put all our rags and old towels (which were previously stored in an old file cabinet in another area of the garage) for easy access.

Garage cabinet with old towels and rags for easy car washing access

Next I took all the boxes that were on the floor and sorted the music one by one into files in the file cabinet that previously held all the towels.

A clean floor with no boxes!

Next I cleaned off our junk shelf and either gave things away or found another place for them opening up a shelf for one of our strollers. To make room for our double jogging stroller and bikes, we moved some lawn equipment to the storage shed so we could hang the kids toys on the wall or ceiling. The result–I now have a hazard free walking area in front of the washer and dryer! At least for now anyway. 😉 Who knows…there is something about a husband and a garage that always seems to make that a work in progress but for now this formerly laundry-stressed mom is satisfied.

Our now clean area in front of the washer and dryer

And that’s it in a nutshell. My former I-really-don’t-want-to-tackle-this-project-because-it-will-take-forever-to-complete task is now done! And now I can get on with living. What’s next month’s project? I’m not sure yet…maybe I’ll just take a month off. 😉 What about you? What organization project are you working on? I love looking and pinning organization posts so be sure to share away. I’ll look forward to reading them.

“By your endurance you will gain your lives.” Luke 21:19

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